Strict mode in Javascript

In strict mode, javascript behaves more safely and logically, and it will gives you more warnings.

To enable strict mode, you can just put the below code.

'use strict';

// To apply strict mode to each function,
function bar() {
    'use strict';
    ....
    ....
}

If the engine of javascript does not support ECMAScript 5, then it will be treated as just string.

Variable must be declared

In strict mode, every variable must be declared explicitly. If you try to assign value to variable which is not declared, an exception(ReferenceError) will be given.

function foo() {
  'use strict';
  value = 'hello';
}
foo(); // ReferenceError: value is not defined

Function can not be declared in blocks

Function must be declared in global scope or in another function, not in blocks.

function foo() {
    'use strict';
    {
        function bar() {    // SyntaxError
            ....
            ....
        }
    }
}

For workaround, function can be declared in blocks like this,

function foo() {
    'use strict';
    {
        var bar = function() {
            ...
        };
    }
}

Arguments

The properties arguments.callee and arguments.caller have been eliminated. And also 'arguments' can not be used for variable name(SyntaxError will be given).

this

If it's not in strict mode, 'this' in function(not method) will be global object(like 'window' in browser). However in strict mode 'this' is undefined.

function foo() {
  this === window; // true
}

function bar() {
  'use strict';
  this === undefined; // true
}

Etc.

• No more 'with': 'with' statement cannot be used anymore.
• No more octal numbers: SyntaxError will be given for octal literal.

For more detail, ECMA-262-5 in detail. Chapter 2. Strict Mode is worth to read.